Restaurants plagued by no shows

Taking upfront payments for meals is not an appealing prospect for restaurants, with fears this could alienate loyal customers. Restaurants, such as Birmingham’s 670 Grams, whose cuisine is inspired by Europe and Asia, have implemented a pay-before-youeat policy ahead of the hospitality industry reopening this spring. This is according to a report in The Times, which said restaurants were concerned by the impact of customer no-shows. Habibur Khan, front of house manager at Dalkeith-based Itihaas said the restaurant would not consider asking customers to pay in advance. ‘“We are all humans, sometimes we do make errors and other things that are more of a priority could come up first so I wouldn’t like to penalise my customers who have been supporting us from day one,” he says. He believes that technology is a better solution for tackling noshows - with most people booking online or over the phone, Khan says it’s better to have a system in place where software indicates the number of no-shows. “That report will then justify if it’s worth it for you to accept a booking or use that table for another loyal customer,” he says. West London-based Patri says that asking diners to pay in advance would be off-putting and would be difficult to implement for those restaurants that are less wellknown.

“The best way to protect from no-shows is a credit card deposit,” says Puneet

Wadhwani, chief tasting officer and cofounder at Patri. “We secure a booking with a minimum cancellation of £5 per person.”